Injuries don’t slow down Bolingbrook in 54-50 win over Kankakee at Chicago Elite Classic

CHICAGO – Even with Bolingbrook point guard Trey Brost and big man Jayden Madden sidelined due to injury, there was still plenty of firepower on hand when the Raiders and Kankakee met at the Chicago Elite Classic Saturday at Credit Union 1 Arena.

In a matchup between the No. 5 team in the IHSA Class 4A AP Poll (Bolingbrook) and the No. 6 team in Class 3A (Kankakee), it was the Raiders who fended off an early Kankakee haymaker and a late Kays' rally to escape with a 54-50 win.

The Raiders improved to 4-1 on the young season as the Kays stumbled to 2-1.

“Obviously we’re missing a couple players, one being our point guard [Brost] and one being a 6-[foot]-9 kid [Madden],” Bolingbrook head coach Robert Brost said. “But once we get healthy and everyone’s ready to go, I think we’re gonna be a really good team. And we beat a really good team today without them.”

The Kays got off to as strong of a start as they could, scoring the game’s first eight points via three Lincoln Williams' free throws, a Myair Thompson 3-pointer and Kenaz Jackson bucket before Bolingbrook’s first points came on JT Pettigrew’s field goal almost five minutes into the contest.

That Pettigrew basket sparked an 11-0 run for the Raiders to give them an 11-8 lead after the first quarter – a lead that was primarily between two and three possessions for the next two-plus quarters.

The Kays eventually regained the lead on a Thompson jumper just over two minutes into the fourth, putting them ahead 43-42, before the Raiders saw the reigning all-state duo of Davion Thompson (22 points) and Pettigrew (13 points) lead Bolingbrook on a 9-1 run that gave them the necessary wiggle room to pull out the win.

In their lone hiccup on the season thus far, a 58-56 loss to Peoria on Nov. 29, coach Brost said the Raiders weren’t able to finish out a full four quarters, something they were able to do Saturday.

“We’re capable of beating this team with the players that we have, we have to do a better job of playing four quarters all the way through instead of just three,” coach Brost said. “When we lost to Peoria we played three quarters and then in the fourth quarter, kind of fell apart. To our kids’ credit, we didn’t do that today.”

For the Kays, their tremendous trio of juniors led the way, as Williams (19 points), Jackson (11 points) and Myair Thompson (10 points) were all in double figures.

As the leading returning scorer from last year’s regional championship team, Williams was the primary player the Raiders tried to stop, something the 6-6 wing has grown accustomed to.

“When Lincoln has his motor going, he’s one of the better players in the country,” Kays head coach Chris Pickett said. “It took him a while to get warmed up today. A lot of teams are doing a lot of things to try and stop him.

“One of the conversations we had is now that Larenz [Walters] is gone [to graduation], the defense is gonna be on Lincoln, and he’s gonna see a lot of jump defenses,” Pickett continued. “He’s not a guy who needs to have the ball in his hands to make an impact all the time. … He can get us second-chance points, get out in transition, get it in the post.”

A part of that approach from the Raiders came in the form of a 3-2 zone to try and keep Williams from having easy paths to drive to the basket, a look the Raiders usually don’t throw out often and one the Kays had yet to see this winter.

Both coaches said they were pleased with how it went, as Brost praised the team’s adjustment to their new-look defense and Pickett liked the post-halftime changes his team made.

“Once we made some adjustments, we got the looks we wanted in the second half,” Pickett said. “It’s something we can put in our pockets, so if we see it again we know how to approach it.”

While the Kays have spent the past few seasons crossing state lines for early-season showcases and shootouts like the Norm Stewart Classic at the University of Missouri, one of three games they’ll play in the state over the next two weeks, the invitation to Saturday’s festivities in Chicago allowed the program an opportunity to showcase itself to folks in and around the city.

“We play in big events in Missouri and other states, but this one’s local and the Chicago area can see what we do,” Pickett said. “The Southland [Athletic Conference] can see what we do, but people in the city and people north, they can’t often see what we do. It’s good for them to see who we are and how we play.”